Really, there SHOULD be a support group for people who purchase books and have a hard time getting rid of them. What would you call it? Readers Anonymous? If you’re a reader you tend to find and communicate with other readers about what you’ve read, so that name will not work.
I am no alone in my addiction. Many famous people have curated libraries (fancy term for ‘hoarding books’) in their homes. Some of these hoarders would be easy to guess: Ernest Hemingway (9,000 books), William Randolph Hearst (7,000 books), and Thomas Jefferson (6,487 books) for example. The news that some famous people are book hoarders, however, is a bit of a surprise: Michael Jackson (10,000 books), George Lucas (27,000 books – his library is shown above), and Harry Houdini (5,000 books).
The biggest collection (I know of anyway) is located in the home of Karl Lagerfeld. The German fashion designer/artist/photographer has approximately 300,000 books at his home in Paris. No kidding. I guess a lot of disposable income and vast rooms in your home can make this high number of books possible. (Picture below)
Apparently, you only have to own 1,000 books to qualify as a book hoarder, so I’m going to hit my Amazon.com bookmark next and see how close I can get to the goal today.
Happy reading!